Mat Bates is the new PD at Cumulus-owned KFOG-FM in San Francisco. He was most recently Head of Programming for Rock Formats at Pandora. Before Pandora, Bates was Global Head of Music and Curation at Rdio and Sr. Manager for Radio Programming at Slacker. Prior to going to the dark side of audio, Bates spent a decade in radio at 91X, KXTE, KQXR, and KRZQ.
Justin Wittmayer, Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Media-San Francisco, said, “Mat Bates is poised to take the Bay Area’s most indelible rock brand, KFOG, into the future with his unique professional background and successes marrying broadcast radio with digital platforms. He lives the format, is well connected in the Bay Area, and brings a new mindset to KFOG. Mat will work with the KFOG team to bring rock’s past and future together in a powerful alchemy that listeners and advertisers will respond to in a big way.”
Bates said, “I’ve spent the last decade applying the best parts of broadcast radio to emerging digital platforms. I’m really excited to now take the things that music tech does well and apply those to such a legendary and beloved radio station. KFOG already has all the necessary pieces; it’s up to us to assemble them correctly now.”
